Surya - Season 6

AGE: 24
JOB: Brand Manager
HOME: Cincinnati, Ohio

Biography
Surya, 24, was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania and raised in Old Bridge, New Jersey. His entrepreneurial spirit was evident early on when he started a successful LA e-commerce strategy company at age 15. Subsequently, he attended college and worked full-time as a director of marketing at a publishing/web company, overseeing a significant marketing budget.

While at Rutgers University, Surya was class president and commencement speaker, graduating with honors and earning a bachelor of science in finance and psychology.

As a brand manager for a top ranking Fortune 500 company, Surya currently crafts corporate strategy to help the company evolve its media plans to keep up with changing consumer habits.

In his free time, he enjoys volunteering, playing basketball, reading and traveling.

Surya believes that he should be the next Apprentice because he "can operate with the passion and energy of an entrepreneur and bring along the discipline and savvy of a corporate executive."

What happened to the "successful LA e-commerce strategy company" that he started at age 15? If it is really successful, why did he fold it and start working for someone else? Do enterpreneurs really like working for others?

What happened to the "successful LA e-commerce strategy company" that he started at age 15? If it is really successful, why did he fold it and start working for someone else? Do enterpreneurs really like working for others?

Some people sell them for a ton of money and move on to bigger and better things.

Surya strikes me like an overflowing stockpile of every corporate-speak philosophy from every over-inflated management/leadership handbook.

There are a lot of good ways to get real work done, and many of those ways involve some good (if sometimes drawn out) processes. Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving & Decision Making is an example, for those who may have heard of it. People like Surya get caught up in the processes for the sake of the processes... reveling in the coolness of "how to do" something... versus doing the process as a necessary path toward achieving the actual results.

Consider the episode recently where everyone around him was getting the job done, while he stood there plansturbating at the dry-erase board the whole time. He's the guy at your job who starts talking at a meeting and you see everyone's shoulders slump as if their muscles are saying "I've lost the will to maintain good posture..."